Bring These Words Back!
One of the better sites on the internet for trivia and random snippets of info comes now with some useful German words that you might learn when English won’t suffice:
- Feierabend: a festive frame of mind at the end of a working day
- Drachenfutter: (“dragon fodder”) a peace offering to a wife from a guilty husband
- Fachmensch: a narrow specialist
- Fingerspitzengefühl: (“fingertipfeel”) intuitive sensibility, confident sureness of touch
- fisselig: nagged and flustered to the point of incompetence
- pomadig: “like hair oil,” able to slip through difficulties
- Verschlimmbesserung: an intended improvement that has made things worse
- Stammplatz: a favorite usual spot, as a table at a café
- Torschlusspanik: (“gate closing panic”) fear that time is running out to act
- Zivilcourage: courage to stand up for what is right
- Zwischenraum: the space between things
The contraceptive pill is the Antibabypille. “I can understand German as well as the maniac that invented it,” wrote Mark Twain, “but I talk it best through an interpreter.”